Delaware Aims for Online Gaming by Sept. 30

By: Charles/February 6, 2013

The Delaware State Lottery is accepting bids for service providers for its online gambling regime and hopes to have sites operational by Sept. 30.

State officials issued a request for proposal that permits gaming companies to place bids on providing services to facilitate the operation of Internet gambling sites. Vendors have been requested in several areas including game content, operations management, technology and support services. April 1st through 12th has been reserved as the scheduled time for vendors to make oral presentations before the Delaware State Lottery in support of their proposals.

Vendors who submit bids are required to have a minimum of one year experience in real-money gambling in either the North America or European markets. Applicants considered as primary vendors must have two years of operating experience that includes offering a minimum of 30 game variants for at least one year.

Nevada and Delaware are the only states thus far that have legalized forms of online gambling. Nevada’s law is restricted to online poker, while Delaware intends to offer a full gamut of online gambling such as bingo, keno, poker, casino table games and video lottery games. Delaware also plans the integration of the lottery and sports betting with its wide array of Internet offerings, but the current request for proposal is not yet seeking service providers in those areas.

Delaware and Nevada most likely will be joined by other states that enact online gambling regulations sometime in 2013. New Jersey could be the next state to legalize online gambling if Gov. Chris Christie signs a bill into law that was approved by the state legislature in late December. However, the wishy-washy governor has expressed concerns about doing so and is facing a Feb. 7 deadline.

Other than the Garden State, California, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Hawaii have all recently proposed various online poker and gambling bills. The success or failure of each of those states to enact Internet gambling laws depends on state legislators. However, with the recent failure of the Reid-Kyl bill to gain support on the federal level, its looking more and more like individual states will eventually rubber-stamp their approval of online gambling and take advantage of the anticipated huge revenue that such legislation could bring to state coffers.

We bring you the best and latest online poker news to keep you updated on poker tournaments, legal issues like the poker shutdowns after 'Black Friday', the latest Full Tilt Poker news and offering in depth reviews on poker sites, combined with our exclusive poker bonus deals.